A Self Bias-flip Piezoelectric Energy Harvester Array without External Energy Reservoirs achieving 488% Improvement with 4-Ratio Switched-PEH DC-DC Converter

Abstract

With the advent of the lnternet-of-Things (1oT) era, sensor nodes are required in almost all fields to achieve a better interaction between humans and the environment. Piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH), which exhibits an equivalent electrical model of an AC current source /P in parallel with the inherent capacitor CP, is a promising technology to resolve the energy problem of such sensor nodes. Recently, inductor-based rectifiers, capacitor-based rectifiers and hybrid rectifiers have been proposed to improve the energy extraction efficiency of PEH devices [1]–[5]. However, these structures all require the aid of additional capacitors or inductors to achieve bias-flip operation, as illustrated in Fig. 1. These extra passive devices are typically large, which can be a major bottleneck in system-volumeconstrained applications such as MEMS [4]. In response to the above problem, this work proposes a novel 8-phase self bias-flip PEH interface with charge recycling and reusing (SBFRR). By using the C P of 4 PEHs as flipping capacitors, this scheme achieves a high voltage flipping efficiency without using extra energy reservoirs. The 4 C P can also serve as flying capacitors to achieve switched-PEH DC-DC (SPDC) conversion for MPPT, while maintaining a MOPIR of >3.5× with a PEH input voltage (Vp) from 0. 78Vto4.9V.